MONKEYING AROUND

I just had to share these adorable cookies that my oldest daughter, Brittany, made for a friend's baby shower. Aren't they just the cutest?!! She made them to match the invitations. She loves all things that have to do with baking; cakes, cupcakes, and now cookies. I know I may be a little biased but I do think she has a flair for it. :o) You can check out her little blog here. It's not very big yet, but she has great plans for it, so if you have a sweet tooth stay tuned!

MAKE A WISH - CARD

One of my favorite blogs to stalk is StampOwl's Studio. Her blog is amazing. Her cards are always adorable and her projects are too cute for words. Check out this cute zig zag style card she created here. As Frances was kind enough to share the template I knew I had to try my hand at making one. So here it is and is one more birthday card down and several more to go. :)

The paper is from Doodlebug and the image is a digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles. I used a little Glossy Accents on the candle and some miscellaneous flowers I had in my stash.

Goes quite well with the little gift bag I had made earlier to hold a gift card and a few scrapbooking embellies. Thank you Frances for the template and inspiration!

HELLO KITTY BIRTHDAY - CARD

Have I mentioned that we have like a million birthdays coming up in the next several weeks? Okay maybe a million is a little bit of a exaggeration, but you know what I mean. This birthday card is for Miss Hailey who is turning 5 and just loves everything and anything Hello Kitty.

I do not own this cart (yet) but it is a really cute one. I do have a question though for those of you that own it. How do you use the shaped card feature on this cart? I tried making a shape card and the left side of my card was flat and cut off the design and the rest of the cuts didn't fit right. How do I fix this for next time? Do you cut out the card base, then cut out a separate base and then glue it on top of the card base?

As you can see I opted not to give her the funky looking shaped card and instead just used a different cut. Hello Kitty was cut at 6". I added TONS of Stickles (Ruby Slippers) to her bow and a rub on sentiment in the heart. Any suggestions on how to use the card feature for this cart or others would be greatly appreciated.

UNDER THE SEA BIRTHDAY - CARD

I swear this is the most used and abused stamp I have. Every time I tell myself to go with something different I still go ahead and reach for this one. I do have a valid excuse, beside it being one of my favorites, one of the many parties that we are attending in a few weeks is a mermaid themed party. So how could I not use Mermaid Anya for the birthday card? I used my Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut cartridge for the coral and shell. I always forget how versatile that cart is with the many accessories on it. I added a little bling to Anya's hair, a few fishy brads from Recollections and a pearl from an old costume necklace. I just love this stamp. :)

BIRTHDAY ROBOT - CARD

I can not believe how many birthday cards I have to make in the next several weeks. In just a few short weeks my family is attending 4 birthday parties in one weekend. Let the craziness begin!

I have been dying to use this Rockets & Sprockets paper from Recollections and the Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears since I purchased them last month. Unfortunately I did not have a stamp or a Cricut cart that would work with my newly bought goodies, so they have had to sit in my scrapbook room untouched......until I found this really cute Dustin Pike robot digi image. I think it is perfect! I colored him with my Copics and used a little Glossy Accents on his belly. Do robots have bellies? Anyways, the circle sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

One down and several more to go. Did I mention I am also attending a Cricut SWARM in 3 weeks? When am I going to find time to get ready and pack for that?

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

How terrific are these cookies?!?! My oldest daughter Brittany made these for her dad's birthday. He's a big Star Wars fan and she thought these would be perfect for his birthday celebration dinner that we had last night. Not only do they look good but they tasted good too.

Way to go sweetie, you did a great job and Happy Birthday Scott!!

SCHOOL ROCKS!!

Right now there are two things that I am addicted to. #1) is The Greeting Farm stamps (I love love love them) and #2) is altering composition notebooks for all of my little school age friends. I figure they can never have too many notebooks. ;)

I made this one for a friend of mine who's daughter recently started school. I just had to use Rock Star Anya from The Greeting Farm. She has just the right amount of spunk. The guitar is paper pieced with help from a clip art picture that I found and altered a bit.

I still have a stack of naked composition notebooks BEGGING to be made over. Hmmmm, I see a Christmas notebook/organizer in my future.

SAIL ME AWAY - LO

I had never heard of a "Raingutter Regatta" until Caitlin and I joined Girl Scouts. This was such a fun event! Caitlin and Scott took part in the "Me & My Guy Raingutter Regatta Race" that our Girl Scout Service Unit put on. They had to put a boat together and then blow it across a raingutter filled with water that was propped up on two saw horses. It was fun to watch the two of them work on their boat together and then have to race it. They didn't win any prizes that day but the two of them certainly had a great time!!

ZOO - LO

This LO used something that I have not used in quite some time......STICKERS. I am not a big fan of using stickers on my LO's as most of them are flat and have no dimension or texture. I am sad to say that I have a huge binder full of stickers that have not seen the light of day unless I break them out for the daycare babes to play with.

To complete this LO I actually took the sticky out of my stickers. I brushed the back of the stickers with baby powder and added them to my page with pop dots to give them dimension. They are more like die cuts here than stickers. I may have to take a second look at my stickers for future LO's.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - CARD

This is a super quick and easy birthday card that was whipped up for one of my daughters. The patterned paper is from a DCWV Spring stack. The "B" was cut using the Alphalicious Cricut cartridge and the rest of the sentiment is a rub on. This card was so quick and easy it almost put itself together....almost. Now if my scraproom would clean itself...I'd have it made.

LET'S FLY A KITE - LO

On one particular breezy afternoon Scott decided to take the girls out to fly their kite at the park right around the corner from our home. Since I can count on one hand how many times they have had the opportunity to fly their kite I had to capture the moment with this LO.


The title was cut using the Coluzzle and the kites were paper pieced from a pattern.


Looking at this LO I realize I can not wait for breezy fall afternoons.

OUCH - CARD

I adore this little voodoo doll image from Whimsie Doodles. You can use it for a get well card (as I have here), a birthday card ("ouch ...another year older?), or a I'm sorry card (sorry I am such a pain in your....),well you get the idea. After printing her out I colored her with my Copics and added a little Glossy Accents on the thumb tacks. The "ouch" sentiment is a rub on. This image is quickly becoming one of my favorites as you can use it for so many occasions.

FABULOUS FIFTIES - LO

Just how cute does my Caitlin look all dolled up for her 50's school performance? A sweet friend made the poodle skirt for her for the event.

The classic car, saddle shoe, dice, and sun glasses were all paper pieced from a pattern. The title was cut from the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge. A real simple and quick LO.

WE WILL MISS YOU HAILEY!!

I believe I have one of the greatest jobs in the world running a daycare and getting to play with children all day long. However, the one major downer of my job is saying goodbye to those that have outgrown me and are heading off to school. One of my little ones is starting kindergarten on Monday, and she will greatly be missed!!

There are so many things I will miss about you, Hailey, but here are my "TOP FIVE":

1) your smile.

2) that you are always such a big helper.

3) your sweetness.

4) how you always compliment me on my outfit or hair, even on my frumpy days!

5) your infinite knowledge of every commercial jingle out there in TV land and how you get those jingles stuck in my head for days after you have stopped singing them. "It's not a sandwich, it's a Tortada." LOL!

Here is a little something I put together to celebrate Hailey's milestone. The image on the card and on the front of the backpack are Whimsie Doodles digi stamps. Currently over at Whimsie Doodles, one of their Doodlelicious Divas, Sheri, is hosting one of their Whimsie Wednesday Challenges with a BACK TO SCHOOL theme. You have until midnight of Tuesday, August 24th to upload your creations to participate in the challenge. You can check out all of the details here.

The template for the pencil box can be found in my previous post and here is a link for the backpack tutorial from SCS. My older daughter made the most adorable glass bead bracelet for Miss Hailey to go into the backpack. She will be very excited to get it as she is always complimenting Brittany on her bracelets.

Make sure to check out the challenge and to check out Sheri's back to school project. It is adorable!!!

SUMMER'S DONE, SCHOOL'S FUN SET

WARNING: this post is picture heavy. I have also included the link for two tutorials/templates for some of the items that I made for this set.




Our niece Alyssa is getting ready to enter the first grade next week so I whipped up this back to school set for her that has a little touch of the summer that is nearly over. Altered composition notebook using "Hula Anya" from The Greeting Farm and paper from Flair Designs. The palm tree is a laser die cut from Deluxe Cuts.

Pencil box covered with the same paper mention above, decorated with ribbon and Hawaiian Paradise Stand-Out stickers from Provo Craft. The pencil box template is from the PCP 3D challenge "slide top pencil box" and can be found here.

Altered Altoids tin, which I spray painted, covered with the same paper and stickers as above. Inside the tin is a little surprise.

The tin holds fridge magnets that I made for Alyssa's mommy to hold all of her papers and wonderful art work that I know she will be bringing home. In keeping with the summer theme I used Hula Anya and Surfer Ian for the magnets. They are such a cute couple.

Here is a pic with the magnets out of the tin and separated. Kim over at the Club Anya & Friends blog, posted a tutorial on how to make these. Check out the link here. Her magnets are just adorable and she gives great directions on how to make them. They are super easy!! I have plans to make several sets for Christmas as stocking stuffers.

Last and finally is a altered Frap bottle that I stuffed full of little school supplies for Alyssa. The whole set was easy to make and I was able to make everything with one piece of card stock and one piece of patterned paper.

CHRISTMAS GIFT CARD HOLDER

Here is another example of the simple gift card holder made using the tutorial found on the Whimsie Doodles' blog. See my post prior to this one for the link to the tutorial. The stamp is from Stampendous. It is actually a cube stamp and has 4 different images including the quote used on the inside of this project. It is my favorite Christmas stamp lately.

JUST BECAUSE - GIFT CARD HOLDER

This has got to be the easiest gift card holder to make EVER! It is made using a envelope...how clever is that? You can find the tutorial for this simple project over at Whimsie Doodles. Here's the link for the tutorial: http://whimsiedoodles.blogspot.com/2010/06/tuesday-tutorial-worlds-easiest-gift.html

I realized my Bella stamps have been neglected, since I discovered the Greeting Farm stamps, and decided to dust them off for this little project. The stamp selected was Grumpabella. I colored her in using my Prisma pencils and Gamsol. The silver flower and lavender brad embellishment are from Oriental Trading.

Don't forget to head on over to Whimsie Doodles and check out their tutorial and their stamps. They have some really adorable digi images.